BOTTOM FEEDING SINCE 2016

Even more tax credit fodder

The Day of New London has a long story this morning about the tax break meant to lure production companies to film in Connecticut.

From the story: (Note — links probably won’t work after two weeks because the paper, like most smaller papers, including The News-Times, doesn’t have a Permalink option. That drives me nuts)

Enthusiasm, Not Evidence, Backs Up Tax Breaks For Film Productions

As in the similar tax incentive programs that have increasingly popped up in other states, Connecticut is relying on multiple assumptions as it attempts to nurture a fledgling industry in the production of everything from big-budget feature films to TV cooking shows to video games: . . .

. . . But despite the substantial enthusiasm for the program among film industry advocates, many state legislators and the administration of Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a few voices counsel caution.

“I think the ultimate criterion is budgetary cost and effect or bang for the buck,” said Robert Tannenwald, a vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston who directs the bank’s New England Public Policy Center. . .